No “alternative metal” band had played yet so Legacy Of Cynthia had the pleasure of doing so, kicking off the third and last day of Laurus with their brilliant “Rats And Rattlesnakes”. Their sound is too exquisite to describe but that exquisiteness is also unique, and it works perfectly live – especially in an open air festival. Their vitality spread out to the crowd, and even when bass player Caesar made a “small” thank-you speech – he himself recognized he was a pain in the ass and that those who’ve been to Legacy Of Cynthia gigs before were surely sick of listening to him – everyone applauded, clearly amused. I admit dancing to “Cabaret”, which wrapped up their set.

Late last year, rockers Low Torque released their third album, “Chapter III: Songs From The Vault”. They’ve brought along some juicy tracks like “Dust Mojo” and “Mutant”, endorsing heavy headbanging and body movement in general. And that’s it, not much else to say – pure rock’n’roll is that straightforward.

It was the first time I’ve seen Revolution Within’s new drummer Rúben Moreira (apparently also known as Tozé…) and the kid’s got my personal approval. He also plays in One Step To Fall and their singer Diogo Pardal would join Raça later on to roar “Pull The Trigger”, but that was closer to the end. Way before that the crowd had already gone wild with the band’s other hits and usual violence. In the end, Raça thanked everyone and paid respects to the Abbott fallen heroes: “Dimebag, Vinnie Paul – rest in peace, wherever you are”.

Time to head back to the main stage Porminho and watch The Temple. They were still sound-checking, playing their cover of Mão Morta’s “Budapeste” – which sadly they didn’t perform “for real” afterwards. But then again, their own songs set the crowd on fire, starting up a really peculiar mosh pit that included laughter, capoeira moves and guys on other guys’ shoulders. Its climax was certainly “War Dance”, when singer João and guitarists Marcelo and Tiago joined drummer Rui in a tribal percussionist feat.

Crisix is not your average thrash metal act. The music is thrash through and through: you’ve got the shredding guitars, the long shrills, the strong bass and the powerful beats. But the performance is much more than angry faces and neck-breaking headbanging. They run, they jump, they laugh… Fiesta all the time! In fact, that’s the exact term they use at some point, when they all change instruments and guitarist B.B. Plaza and bassist Dani Ramis take over the microphone. A medley of covers, including Beastie Boys’ “Fight For Your Right (To Party)” and RATM’s “Killing In The Name Of”, put the Barcelona band at the top of Laurus’ most amusing artists. And their own songs, such as “Get Out Of My Head”, “Conspiranoia” or “Ultra Thrash”, made a huge cloud of dust rise up out of the mosh circles.

Getting Tarantula to play between Crisix and Dark Tranquillity wasn’t the best of options – unless the idea was for the crowd to recharge batteries. Their old school heavy/power metal is legendary around these parts, but even with the crowd echoing loudly the choruses to “Face The Mirror”, “You Can Always Touch The Sky” or “End Of The Rainbow”, something felt amiss. It’s been less than two years since I’ve last seen them live and they were in pretty good shape. Now it seemed like the spark was gone, or at least dimmed. It was a bit disappointing. And I’ll never understand why, despite someone always screams for “Power Tower”, they still refuse to play it…

There’s this Dark Tranquillity song called “The Mundane And The Magic” (which they’ve played in Laurus, by the way) and I believe “magic” is just the right word to describe what happened when the Swedes got on stage. Their current album “Atoma” was released over a year-and-a-half ago (review here) but as Mikael Stanne said, “it still felt pretty new”; the title-track, “Clearing Skies”, “Force Of Hand” and a couple more were just as rejoiced as old classics like “Monochromatic Stains”, “Therein” or “Terminus (Where Death Is Most Alive)”.
The encore started with “State Of Trust” and then Stanne said that it was always a pleasure to come back to Portugal and that we knew they’d keep coming; he’d learnt over the years that we were very passionate, that we weren’t “Lost To Apathy”. And “Misery Crown” was just… well, what I’ve first said: magical.

This year’s festival finished with a local band, that came back together after almost a decade-long hiatus (I think it was an actual split-up, but whatever it was, it’s over). The Godiva was the first band I’ve shot with a digital camera, back in 2005, and for me it was enthralling to see this new version of them, all re-vamped and full of life – despite their “deadly” make-up, ha ha. And those who only knew them from the brand new single “Empty Coil”, or didn’t know them at all before this show, seemed to enjoy the old songs such as “Spiral”, “Fallen” or “Oblivion”. A great new era for the band, closing what represents a new era as well for this great festival. See you in 2019, Laurus Nobilis!

The second day started at mid-afternoon, with Sotz’ doing the honors. Here’s a band that’s been improving their performance at every show, and consequently winning over more fans – 4:30 p.m. and a large number of people ready to shout out and mosh around their support. Without any kind of disrespect for previous line-ups, I believe the current one is the most efficient in living up to the aggressive impact the band yearns for their sound.
I’m not sure if the crowd was singing along – Dan Vesca is pretty hard to follow up – but they clearly recognized the tracks off the EP “Tzak’ Sotz’” and the recent single “Baak’”.

Another band that’s grown a lot since the first time I’ve seen them a couple of years ago is In Vein. Raising Legends has been doing a hell of a job managing them, getting them to play practically everywhere, to the point where I confess I rolled my eyes when seeing their name on this bill. My sincere apologies – it was well deserved. Songs such as “S.A.T.A.N.”, “Paranoia” or “Infinite Night” fueled the headbanging and the horns in the air – singer António Rocha tried to convince the firemen to join the latter at some point, but they just smiled.

Representing a rockier side of metal, we got Nine O Nine, guitarist Tó Pica’s new band. Introducing their debut “The Time Is Now”, released in February, Louro was filled with the enthralling melodies of “Big Event”, “Beauty Femme” and “Sofia” – dedicated not just to all Sofias but to every woman in the audience. Singer/bassist Sérgio Duarte didn’t want us to get the idea that NON were mellow, so they finished their set with the brisker “The Rush”.

The Estrella Galicia stage closed for the moment and the spotlight turned to the main stage, Porminho, with Hills Have Eyes spreading their usual vitality. Fábio Batista’s voice was a bit worn down but he himself was jumping all around, so it made no real difference in the intensity of the music. Plus bassist Luís Silva backed him up, making sure all lines were sung. Splitting their setlist between the two most recent albums, but visiting “Black Book” through “Unneurotic” and the new single “Never Quit”, Fábio thanked the people that probably weren’t much into their sound but still were there, watching them and showing them respect. This and the little speech that always goes along “Anyway It’s Gone”, about music being music, no matter the label, hence they’d never decline an invitation for a “metal festival”.

From metalcore to groove, Equaleft was the epitome of the “may the force be with you” slogan which their singer Miguel Inglês loves so much. They’ve been recording the successor to “Adapt & Survive” and even if the title or release date weren’t revealed yet, a live promotion is running already: “We Defy”, “Once Upon A Failure”, “Strive”, “Endless” and “Overcoming” made part of the band’s set and were tremendously cherished. Still, the highlight was “the lightsabre song” – the classic “Invigorate” – where Sotz’-Dan Vesca was a spontaneous guest. During the last song, “Maniac”, Miguel crowdsurfed while singing and then rewarded the fans with cookies. As usual.

When promoter Aguiar Silva got on stage to address the audience, I thought he was going to introduce the headliners; it was something much more noble than that. In case you don’t know, SepticFlesh come from Greece, where several wildfires have taken about a hundred lives. Portugal went through a similar tragedy last summer, so more than sympathetic with the situation, we related. Therefor when Aguiar asked not for a minute of silence but half a minute of applause for the souls lost in those fires, Louro trembled. Singer/bassist Spiros Antoniou himself would dedicate “Prometheus” to the same souls – after all, in Greek mythology, Prometheus was a Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to the humans. But before that, songs such “Martyr”, “The Vampire Of Nazareth” or “Prototype” had already left the crowd in total rapture. Spiros dislocated his shoulder a few weeks ago, and even if everything’s okay now, he still couldn’t raise his arm/fist as high as he wished to, so he wanted our help to do it for him. We obviously complied. 10-year-old “Anubis” and last year’s “Dark Art” built the encore of a stellar show.

Mata-Ratos spent almost a decade without any new material but their life on the road rarely took a break – that being the reason why their original schedule on Saturday was anticipated to Friday (something about a show in Spain). “Banda Sonora do Apocalipse Anunciado” was released in 2016, but needless to say that it was songs from almost 20 years ago – “A Minha Sogra É Um Boi”, “Amor Eterno” or “CCM” – that brought out the inner punk in all of us. Singer Miguel Newton still paces the stage through and through like a lion in a cage, but I’ve managed to frame him more clearly – he’s either slowed down a bit with age or I’m just getting more skilled.

Back to the Estrella Galicia stage to watch the final band: only Web to have such a numerous and loud crowd at 2 in the morning. They’ve been somewhat away from the stages, writing the successor to “Everything Ends”, but unlike Equaleft, nothing new was revealed – well, except for the intro, that was a new one. And guitarist Filipe Ferreira’s posture! Web is the band I’ve seen the most in these +20 years of attending metal concerts and this was the first time Filipe made me wonder if they got sponsored by some energy drink. “Vendetta” was the last live song of the night, before António Freitas assumed the role of DJ.